Kalakendra in Lalmatia is currently hosting A Bed A Home and Graves, a photography and video installation by Ahmed Rasel, curated by Wakilur Rahman. The exhibition opened on Friday, 9 October, with economist Anu Muhammad and photographer Saiful Huq Omi, principal of Counter Foto, as guests.
It stays open to the public until 26 October, so visitors have a little over a week left to see it.
Rasel’s work comes from a place he knows personally. He was born in southern Bangladesh, a region exposed to rising seas and river erosion.
In 1997, his grandparents lost their home and all their land to the river. As a child, he watched his grandmother age in a new city, grieving for what the water had taken.
That experience, he says, shaped how he understands the loss of collective memory and well-being among climate-affected communities, and it is why he approaches environmental issues “from a deeply embodied perspective.”
The exhibition reflects a shift in his practice. After more than a decade of documentary photography and teaching, Rasel has spent the past three years moving beyond conventional documentary storytelling.
He now builds large-scale, site-specific installations using local materials and spatial strategies, moving from distant observation towards intimate engagement. The aim, he says, is to let photography work with emotional urgency and extend into three-dimensional, sculptural forms.
His earlier projects, The Fish Was Kept Alive to Tell the Story and Memories of Lost Lands, blend archival material with contemporary images and treat water as both nurturer and destroyer.
Rasel’s work has been shown at Dhaka Art Summit (2018 and 2023), Chennai Photo Biennale (2021), Kolkata International Photo Festival (2019), KALA South Asia, among others. It has been published in outlets including Art Monthly UK, Trouw, Private Magazine and F-stop.
A Bed A Home and Graves runs until 26 October at Kalakendra, 9/3, Block-D, Lalmatia, Dhaka 1207. The exhibition is open to all, daily from 4pm to 8pm.
